


Let's Get One Thing Straight

by RandomThingsInLife



Series: It's Overwhelming [5]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Gen, Good Parents Maggie & Wentworth Tozier, M/M, Richie Tozier Comes Out, The Losers Club Are Good Friends (IT), The Losers Club Love Each Other (IT), background benverly, background hanbrough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:53:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25770907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomThingsInLife/pseuds/RandomThingsInLife
Summary: The Losers Club meets up and get kicked out of an Olive Garden. Richie comes out somewhere in there.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: It's Overwhelming [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633264
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	Let's Get One Thing Straight

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back y'all

Richie is practically vibrating with excitement while he waits for Eddie to get back from picking Stan up at the airport. He’s stupidly excited to see his friends again, this time without the pressure of a murderous clown weighing them down.

They’d decided that all the Losers would stay at Richie and Eddie’s hotel that night. But first, they were meeting for dinner. Eddie had wanted to go somewhere nice, but Bev had argued that they’d be kicked out in ten minutes. She’d suggested they find somewhere they’d be able to get through a whole meal. Richie had suggested Olive Garden, just to see Eddie’s annoyed eyeroll. The others had agreed quickly, and Richie reveled in Eddie’s exasperated groan.

Richie fiddles with his phone, mindlessly scrolling through Twitter and debating with himself over his coming out plans. Finally, finally, the door opens and Stan and Eddie walk in. Richie pops up out of his seat.

“Stan!” he says.

“Hey Rich,” Stan laughs, dropping his bag and opening his arms for a hug.

Richie bounces over and hugs him tightly. Eddie laughs at them and slips into his room.

“How you doing, Richie?” Stan asks as they separate.

“Good, I’m good.” Richie says, grinning. “How are you? How’s the wife?”

“More patient and understanding than I deserve,” Stan laughs. “I’m okay. Could do without remembering the deadlights dreams, but what are we going to do.”

Richie sobers a little and they move to the couch.

“I guess, start going to therapy,” Richie says.

Stan snorts. “My therapist is hearing all about my crazy nightmares.”

“Eds just found one. Guess it’s my turn,” Richie says.

Stan smiles at him.

“So,” Richie says hesitantly. “I think I’m gonna come out soon.”

“How soon?” Stan asks.

“Maybe tonight?” Richie says, scratching the back of his head nervously. He figures he could use the emotional support from the others. If the Losers are there to support him, he thinks he could do anything.

“Whatever you decide, Richie, I’m here for you,” Stan says, squeezing his shoulder in support.

“Thanks, Stan,” Richie says, he refuses to cry. “We’ll see how I feel about it after a few drinks.”

Stan laughs.

Eddie comes back out of the bedroom and smiles at them.

“We gotta get going,” he says and herds them out to the car.

Bev and Ben are already there when they pull up. Bev greets them with enthusiastic hugs when they get out of the car. Ben’s subsequent hugs are no less heartfelt.

They head inside and grab a table while they wait for Bill and Mike to join them. They order drinks and way too many appetizers.

Bill and Mike show up while they’re waiting on drinks to arrive. They exchange hugs again.

They spend drinks and appetizers catching up on their week.

“How’s the divorce going, Eddie?” Mike asks.

“Surprisingly well,” Eddie laughs.

“His lawyer’s amazing,” Bev says.

“She’s your lawyer too,” Eddie laughs.

“And she’s great!” Bev says.

Richie laughs.

“Hey, why did you come to New York, Richie?” Bill asks.

“Oh my god,” Stan says. “You really didn’t figure this one out, Billy?”

“Honestly,” Bev laughs.

“I came so Bev could give me a new wardrobe, obviously,” Richie jokes.

Bill nods, like that actually makes sense, and Eddie muffles laughter into his hand.

Richie grins and pokes him in the side. He cracks up, prompting the rest of the Losers to dissolve into laughter.

They’re drawing glares from the tables nearby, but they’re all too happy being together again to notice or care.

Their food arrives and it’s clear that the other tables really appreciate that they have to shut the fuck up to eat.

Richie bugs Stan and Eddie for a bite of their meals and Bev leans across the table to pop a bite of hers into his mouth. They must not get as quiet as those around them hoped, because they’re still attracting glares from an angry looking guy a table over. Eddie elbows Richie in the side and nods in the guy’s direction. Richie snickers, and their angry neighbor is quickly pointed out to the rest of the group. They crack up again, but do manage to reign themselves in to finish their food.

Richie’s two glasses of wine in and he decides that’s just enough liquid courage for him to officially come out. He pulls his phone out and texts Adrian and Stan.

 **Richie:** It’s time.

 **Stan:** Proud of you.

 **Adrian:** gonna publicly call dibs 😉

He also shoots Steve a heads up.

 **Richie Tozier ✓** **@trashmouthtozier** Let’s get one thing straight… I’m not.

The second the tweet posts, Richie locks his phone and shoves it toward Stan.

“Don’t give it back until the morning, unless my manager calls,” He says.

Stan takes the phone and nods.

Everyone’s phones ding simultaneously.

Stan smiles.

Eddie picks his phone up and quirks a brow at Richie. The others follow suit.

“Wait, do you all have notifications turned on for me?” Richie asks.

“Duh,” Bev says. “We gotta know what dumb shit you’re up to.”

Ben smiles sweetly at him. He doesn’t buy it.

Bev lets out an excited squeak. “Oh my god, you did it!” she says. “Congrats, Rich!”

Eddie’s grinning broadly at him. Stan gets an arm around his shoulder to give him a hug.

Stan checks his own phone then snorts.

“This is how you decided to say it?” Stan says incredulously.

Bill’s taking a sip of wine as he opens his phone to read Richie’s tweet and Bev smirks at Richie, then turns her camera on to record Bill choking on his wine in surprise.

Richie cracks up. “Holy shit, Bev! Send me that!”

“You’ll have to send it to your manager,” She giggles.

“No!” Bill moans. “Come on!”

“Nah, I’ll send him a group shot,” Richie says.

“Hey,” Ben says, looking up from his phone with a wide smile. “Congrats, man. How’s it feel?”

“Nerve wracking, Haystack,” Richie grins back. “That’s why Stan’s gonna hang onto my phone all night.”

Ben laughs.

“Honestly, I could never have done it without having you guys in my corner,” Richie says.

Bev looks teary. “We’re here for you, Rich,” She says.

“We’re all here for each other,” Richie says, trying to get a little of the attention off himself.

Eddie leans into Richie’s side. Bev snaps a picture of them with a wink.

Mike flags down the waitress and orders champagne for everyone.

“What for?” Bill asks.

“To celebrate Richie,” Mike grins.

“Hey, no!” Richie says. “We should be celebrating you getting out of Derry.”

“So it’s for both of you,” Bev says. “And for Eddie signing divorce papers.”

“No, what?” Eddie protests. “Then we have to include Bev getting _her_ divorce started.”

“And Stan’s wife for letting him come hang out with us losers so soon after he just did,” Ben says.

“And Benverly finally figuring it out,” Richie says.

“So we’re celebrating all of us,” Stan says, cutting off any additional reasons with a roll of his eyes.

The champagne arrives.

“To the Losers Club,” Richie says.

“To the Losers Club!” the others chorus.

They’ve completely pissed off the guy at the table next to them. He’s complaining angrily to a manager, who is clearly trying her best to placate the man.

Richie nudges Stan and nods the guy’s way. Stan hides a giggle behind his hand. The manager seems to get the guy settled down and steps apprehensively their way.

“Hi,” she says. “How is everything this evening?”

The Losers smile up at her. They silently decide that Bev should be the one to take this one, since she’s the most socially capable of the group.

“It’s great!” Bev says cheerily.

“Great,” the manager smiles uneasily. “We’ve, uh, we’ve had a few complaints about uh, about the noise,” she starts.

“Sorry,” Bev says. “We’ll keep it down.”

“Thanks,” the manager sighs and makes a quick exit.

The Losers snicker quietly and settle down, sipping their celebratory champagne.

“So, hey,” Bill says suddenly. “Rich! Now that you’re out, are you gonna start dating?”

Eddie and Richie look at each other and crack up, prompting Stan, Bev, Ben and Mike to do the same.

“What?” Bill asks, looking between them all in confusion. “What am I missing?”

They’re laughing helplessly.

“Guys!?” Bill says emphatically. “What am I missing!”

“What do you think, Marsh,” Richie says jokingly. “Should we put him out of his misery?”

“I’m so torn,” Bev laughs.

Richie looks to Eddie, because, really, this is Eddie’s call.

Eddie’s smiling gently at him. He raises an eyebrow at Richie, is it okay if I tell. Richie nods.

“He’s dating me,” Eddie says, rolling his eyes at Bill.

Bill looks surprised, which sends the rest of the Losers back into hysterics.

“What? Really?” Bill says.

Eddie’s laughing so hard he’s snorting, so Richie takes over to nod in confirmation.

“Judging by the way you’re all laughing at me, everyone already knew,” Bill says, an unimpressed look on his face.

“It was pretty fucking obvious,” Stan says.

“Really?” Bill asks.

The others nod.

“Oh. Huh.” Bill says.

“It’s ok Bill. We know your observation skills don’t really extend to relationship stuff,” Mike says, smirking.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bill says, blushing.

Stan looks at Richie, you think they’ve figured it out? Richie tilts his head, too soon to tell.

They’ve apparently gotten loud enough during this exchange, to attract complaints again because the manager reappears.

Bev hushes them. And they shut up, hiding grins behind their hands and glasses.

“I’m so sorry,” Bev says to the manager.

The girl nods and shuffles off.

“Guys,” Bev says. “Cool it. We’re ruining her night.”

They quiet down again and Ben asks Mike what his plans are.

Mike says he’s going to Florida for a well-deserved vacation. Then he’s thinking about road-tripping around the country for a bit. Bill blushingly tells them he’s going with Mike.

“Oh?” Stan prompts with a smirk.

“Yeah,” Mike smiles and takes Bill’s hand.

“No shit?” Richie laughs.

Mike grins and Bill keeps on blushing beside him.

“Congrats, guys,” Ben says.

Bill clears his throat. “So, when do we get to meet Patty?”

“Maybe next time,” Stan laughs. “I think she’d like you guys.”

“You hear that?” Richie grins. “Stan thinks we can be normal enough to meet his wife.”

“Yeah, no,” Stan says. “I think she can manage meeting you lot. She’s an elementary school teacher.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Eddie says.

“That you’re a bunch of children,” Stan says, smirking at this successful Eddie baiting.

Richie snickers at Stan’s smug look.

Stan jumps a little then digs Richie’s phone out of his pocket.

“It’s your mom,” Stan says.

Richie winces. “I’ll call her back tomorrow,” He says. “When I’m not drunk.”

“Probably a good idea,” Stan says and tucks the phone back into his pocket.

The Losers goof around for a bit and attract more glares. Even Bev’s occasional giggled hushing isn’t enough to keep them in line. Eventually the manager must have heard enough complaints because she comes back to their table to ask them timidly to leave. They do so without a fuss, paying quickly and leaving a giant tip to make up for ruining the staff’s evening.

They head back to Richie and Eddie’s hotel. On the way through the lobby, Richie stops them all and goes to ask the girl at the desk if she’ll snap a photo of them. She agrees and he grins and marshals the Losers into position. Stan hands Richie’s phone over and he passes it to her and she takes a few photos. She hands Richie’s phone back him and he thanks her and surreptitiously slips the phone back to Stan.

They pile into the elevator to head up to the room. Bev leans into Richie’s side and he wraps an arm around her shoulders.

“This place is nice,” she grins up at him knowingly.

He shrugs. “Figured we’d be here a while.”

“Uh-huh,” she smirks.

“Let me live, Marsh,” Richie groans.

She giggles and Richie sticks his tongue out at her.

They get to the room and sprawl out over the couches.

“So, this place is nice,” Stan says pointedly.

“What kind of pile on?” Richie says indignantly.

Bev snorts next to him.

“Can you fuckers stop giving me shit for like, five seconds? You’re lucky I picked this place, assholes, it’s big enough for us all to stay.” Richie complains.

The rest of the Losers laugh. Richie groans.

“We’re being really nice to you on Twitter,” Ben says.

“You’re only nice to me when I can’t see it,” Richie whines.

“So you don’t ruin it,” Stan says.

Richie flips them off.

Eddie cuddles up to him and gives him a gentle smile and Richie relaxes into the couch.

Richie’s always, always? Yes, always, surprised at how easily they get along and how easily conversation flows between them.

Mike starts talking about turning his massive amount of notes into an actual book. He’s hesitant as he tells them the idea.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Stan says, smiling. “You’ve spent so much time on gathering all the information, it might be good for you to process all of it somehow.”

“I’d, uh, that is, if it’s okay, I’d like to do interviews with you guys about, you know, that summer, and what just happened. Would, would you guys be ok with that?” Mike says.

The Losers go quiet, thoughtful.

“Yes,” Stan says first, which surprises Richie.

The others agree in quick succession, which now that Richie thinks about it, absolutely makes sense. They’d do anything, literally, anything for Mike. He brought their family back together.

They keep talking until they all fall asleep, all over each other, lights still on.

Richie wakes to the smell of coffee. He carefully extricates himself from the pile of sleeping Losers and joins Stan where he sits at the counter.

“What’s the damage?” Richie asks.

“Surprisingly little,” Stan says, sipping his coffee. “Your manager texted to ask you to call him.”

Richie sigs and drops his head to the counter. Stan pats his shoulder and hops up to pour Richie a cup of coffee.

“There’s a lot of support online and a lot of people going, wait, is this real? But there’s not much negativity so far. Probably because you posted then disappeared,” Stan says, poking at Richie’s ribs so he’ll sit up and take the mug from him.

Richie does with a sigh.

“Alright, Uris,” he says slowly, sipping at his drink, “Hit me.”

Stan smiles and slides his phone to him.

Richie hesitantly unlocks it and opens Steve’s text.

 **Steve:** Rich, give me a call when you get a chance.

Richie sighs. “Should I call Steve or check Twitter first?”

Stan thinks for a second. “I think, I think you should call your manager. You’ll fall down a rabbit hole on Twitter and in the end, you’ll need to know what Steve has to say and it’s probably better to talk to him first then go play on Twitter.”

Richie nods, because of course Stan’s right. He shuffles off to his room with his phone and his coffee.

Richie takes a seat on the bed and nervously calls Steve.

“You couldn’t have given me a little more of a heads up?” Steve asks when he picks up.

“Sorry,” Richie says. “I was with my friends last night and it was enough of a safety net that I decided to go for it.”

“Hey, good for you Rich. I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t have done it. Just, like, you could’ve let me know earlier so I could maybe set up an interview instead of the Tweet,” Steve says.

“Uh, about that,” Richie says, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Steve sighs. “What did you do?”

“I, uh, I promised Adrian Mellon the first post coming out interview.”

“The kid with the blog?” Steve says.

“He freelances,” Richie says. He and Adrian text a good bit. It’s been good for Richie, lets him be out and talk about being gay with someone who actually is and has been and can, well, explain things to him. Richie’d done a lot to make sure people wouldn’t suspect he was gay and keeping himself far from the gay community is a choice that’s left him, really, really lost. And Adrian gets it. And he needs a little support with the clown thing.

“Tell me you’re not fucking the kid, Rich,” Steve says wearily.

“What!” Richie squeaks. What the fuck. “No! Dude, no! Fucking hell, Steve. He’s dating a guy from my hometown. They live there. We met while I was home. He got the shit kicked out of him by some homophobes in town. It’s like, a solidarity thing.”

“Okay, okay! Sorry! Sorry,” Steve says. “You’re still in New York?”

“Yeah, not sure how long I’ll be here.”

“Ok, well. Keep me posted on how the writing’s going.”

“Will do.”

“Take care, Rich,” Steve says and hangs up.

Richie lets out a relieved sigh. That went, that went much better than he’d expected. He had definitely not expected the thing about Adrian, but it’s fine.

He heads back out to rejoin the others. Ben and Mike have joined the conscious. They greet him brightly and he groans.

“What did I do to end up awake with the fucking morning people?”

“Maybe you drank less than the rest of us,” Ben says.

“Unlikely,” Stan says.

Richie flips him off and refills his mug.

“Well?” Stan prompts.

Richie gives him a thumbs up.

“Good,” Stan says.

“Have you been on Twitter yet?” Mike asks.

“Nope,” Richie says. “Just talked to my manager.”

Ben nods and turns his attention to the coffee.

Richie takes his phone back out and opens Twitter. He ignores his notifications and opts to post one of their group shots from last night.

 **Richie Tozier ✓** **@trashmouthtozier** _[photo of the Losers, crowded onto a couch in the hotel lobby, grinning broadly at the camera]_ What a bunch of Losers #theLosersClub #lovetheseassholes @EddieK @StanleyUris @MikeHanlon @BillDWriter @BevMarsh @BenHanscom

Ben, Mike, and Stan look at their phones.

“When did we even take this?” Mike asks.

“After we got kicked out of Olive Garden and came back here,” Richie says.

“How drunk were we?” Mike muses.

Stan laughs. “I think you just forgot we did it. We were still laughing about being kicked out of a fucking Olive Garden.”

“That’s fair,” Mike chuckles.

Richie’s phone buzzes.

 **Steve:** Are you fucking kidding me? You’re friends with William fucking Denbrough?

 **Richie:** Since we were kids.

 **Steve:** What kind of friend group is this? You, Beverly Marsh, fashion designer, Benjamin Hanscom, architect of the year, William fucking Denbrough, famous horror writer.

 **Richie:** Stan’s like a top accountant in Atlanta. Eddie’s a super successful risk analyst. Mike’s a research librarian.

 **Steve:** What the fuck, Rich.

Richie sends him back the blushy smile emoji.

“When are we waking the others up?” Richie says mischievously.

“We’re not,” Mike says.

Richie pouts. Stan gives him a look that says behave. He shrugs.

“Alright, folks. I’m going in,” he says.

They smile encouragingly at him.

Richie’s hands are shaking as he unlocks his phone. He swallows thickly against the wave of nausea that hits him.

“You know you don’t have to look at it if you don’t want to,” Stan says gently.

Richie takes a deep breath. Stan places a grounding hand on his shoulder.

“Rich, you don’t have to look. I can tell you what we said and then, fuck with the settings so you don’t have to see anything. I mean, I’m not super well versed in using Twitter, but I am willing to see what I can do,” Stan says.

Richie half sighs, half laughs. God, Stan’s great. “I know. I, I’m not going to read everything. Just you guys and enough to get a feel for the general Response.”

“Ok,” Stan says, “Space or no space?”

“No space,” Richie says.

Stan pulls his stool closer, so he can sit with his arm pressed against Richie’s. Mike does the same on Richie’s other side. Ben stands directly across from him at the counter.

Richie’s hands are still shaking with nerves, but he’s settled a little, no longer feels like he may be sick. He wants to get this over with before Eddie wakes up. He wants to spare him the stress of worrying about this for him. Which is probably not normal, and the more that he thinks about it, the more he realizes that he should probably let Eddie worry about him a little. But Eddie’s got enough on his plate and really, this is small time in comparison to what Eddie’s got going on. And now he’s thinking in circles. Focus, Tozier.

He unlocks his phone and opens Twitter. It’s, god, nowhere near as bad as he was afraid it would be.

Adrian had beaten them all.

 **Adrian Mellon ✓** **@adrianmellon** @trashmouthtozier DIBS ON THAT INTERVIEW! But congrats, man!

Richie thinks about it for a second, then replies.

 **Richie Tozier ✓** **@trashmouthtozier** @adrianmellon So this is what it looks like outside of the closet!

He finds his friends’ comments next.

 **Beverly Marsh ✓** **@BevMarsh** @trashmouthtozier I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!

 **Eddie Kaspbrak @EddieK** @trashmouthtozier Congratulations, Rich 😊

 **Stanley Uris @StanleyUris** @trashmouthtozier You are my Best Friend and I am so, incredibly proud of you.

 **Benjamin Hanscom ✓** **@BenHanscom** @trashmouthtozier Congrats, Richie!! We love you!

 **Mike Hanlon @MikeHanlon** @trashmouthtozier Proud of you, Rich! Love you, man.

 **William Denbrough ✓** **@BillDWriter** @trashmouthtozier You really fucking did that. Congrats, Rich!

He’s crying. He loves them. They’re the best.

“You guys,” he chokes out.

“We love you, Rich,” Mike says.

“Always have,” Stan says.

“Always will,” Ben says.

Richie grins at them through his tears and Stan hands him a tissue. He lets out a blubbery laugh.

“Are you laughing or crying?” Bev groans from the couch.

“Both!” Richie sobs.

She comes over to wrap her arms around his waist and hugs him tight. “You okay?”

“He just read our Tweets,” Ben supplies.

“Ah!” Bev says. “Love you, Rich.”

“Love you too,” he says. He manages to get his crying under control and cleans himself up.

He scrolls through some of the other comments he’d gotten. It is mostly people asking if it’s real. Between his friends’ replies and the photo he posted this morning, which confirms that they’re friends, a lot of that should die down. He’s aware that he’ll eventually face some backlash, especially considering the target audience of the majority of his material. Maybe he’ll take a Twitter break while he works on his new stuff and gets things with Eddie settled.

He basks in the happy mood of the morning as they all stumble through recovering from their night. But in the end, he can’t bring himself to regret it. Any of it. If he had to fight ten evil space clown monsters to get these amazing people in his life, he’d do it in a heartbeat. And really, once you’ve fought an evil space clown monster, Twitter is nothing.

His mom takes it surprisingly well. She’s concerned at first, asking him if the reason he’d waited so long is because he was afraid of what she and his dad would say. Once he assures her that no, it was just him and a whole lot of internalized homophobia, she relaxes a little, tells him she loves him, and extracts a promise to visit from him. His dad gets on the phone and tells him he’s proud of him and he hopes that Richie will bring a boyfriend with him when he comes for that visit. Richie is noncommittal, he’s not sure Eddie is ready for that, or when that visit will actually happen, so he’s not making any promises. His parents let him go after a little fussing from his mother and a few terrible dad jokes from his father. He loves it.

Their easy acceptance leaves him in tears, and the Losers look ready to fight until he manages to blubber out that they’d been super understanding.

“Of course they were,” Eddie says firmly. “Maggie and Went are the best.”

Richie smiles softly at him, remembering all the times Eddie had stayed over, all the times Eddie’d used his house as a safe haven from his mother, all the times Maggie had lied straight to Mrs. K’s face about Eddie not being there after Eddie’d freaked about his mom being at the door, all the times Went had blatantly abused his status as a doctor to convince Mrs. K to let Eddie come on some excursion with them, all the times Maggie and Went had insisted that Eddie was part of the family. Of course, of course, of course Eddie would defend them.

“I wasn’t actually afraid of telling them,” Richie tells the others. “They’re great. I just wasn’t ready until I was. And even though I knew they would be chill about it, I was still a little afraid they wouldn’t. I spent so long being afraid of anyone finding out, that it’s a little terrifying letting that go and just being honest.”

The others nod in understanding.

“But hey, if we can kill a space clown, we can do anything,” Bill says.

“Exactly, Big Bill,” Richie says, “exactly.”


End file.
